This mother green heron is protecting her baby from a roadside hawk. The hawk is sitting in a shrub above and to the left, no more than 30 yards away. It had swooped in toward the baby heron alone on the river bank, but the mother heron saw it–long before the human observers on the boat saw it–and came to her chick’s rescue. She was absolutely fierce.

The hawk watched like a… well, you know, like a hawk! The humans watched with bated breath. And then the hawk–no match for the mother heron–took off in search of less well-protected prey.

When will we humans become equally fierce in protecting all of creation for future generations?